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Strict dieting and throwing up can't be all bad, can they?
Description:
Teenager Melissa Rollins has got the eye of the cute new guy in school. The one thing Melissa doesn’t have is a perfect body. Strict dieting and throwing up can’t be all bad, can they?
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Skinny
ISBN-13:
9781600063565
Trim Size: 5.5 x 8.25
Cover: Paperback
176
Pages
$12.99
Percentage Discounts for Bulk Purchases of Single Items
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Downloadable
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Part of a Series
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Available in Spanish
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View all reviewsCustomer Reviews
The Skinny.
Skinny by Laura L. Smith is a sweet look at the issue of teen eating disorders. The story establishes all the predicable (and real) pressures of teen life: extra-curricular activities, homework, friendships, dating relationships, and body image amidst it all. While the main character, Melissa, is a saccharine and dramatic lead, she is a useful tool to help the author explore how otherwise stable and independent teens slip into damaging eating habits. The Christian imprint on Melissa’s life seems fairly accurate—she relies on prayer and reading her Bible, but is still figuring out what her faith means and how it applies to real-life issues like body image. Though the conflict of moral pressure seems fairly absent from the book since all of Melissa’s friends, family, and even alluring southern boyfriend are also churchgoers, the setting feels genuine. Smith deals thoughtfully with the pressures of Melissa’s life, and smartly creates a disorder that is not as extreme or obvious as bulimia or anorexia. For young women who struggle with eating and body image, or whose friends do, this story will give them hope, and perhaps help them identify unhealthy habits. Skinny works for what it is—a simple, imperfect, but loveable approach to a sensitive issue.
Posted by
Claire
on
6/8/2009 4:00:56 PM
Great Read for Teen Girls
Skinny was a fast and enjoyable read. Melissa is a normal teenage girl, with dance team practice, sleepovers with friends, homework, tests, and boy drama. She is struggling to hold it all together and get control of her life. Melissa works to lose weight because she thinks it will help in her quest to be picked for dance team captain, but in the process she becomes obsessive about what she eats (and everything else in her life). She tries to hide it from her friends and family, but eventually her juggling balls start dropping and she is forced to confess her problems. Only then can those closest to her start helping and show her a way back to a more normal life. Melissa’s faith is also a big part of her life, and she uses scripture and prayer in her recovery.
When most people think about eating disorders, they can’t understand how people could do that to themselves. This book helps the reader understand how those people transition from normal lives to stressing over every calorie. It shows how all of the little stresses in someone’s life can add up to such a huge problem; one that they struggle to keep hidden from those closest to them.
The author could have gone into more detail about the character’s recovery process, but all in all this was a good book and one I’d recommend to any teenage girl or her parents.
Posted by
Nicole Norman
on
5/24/2009 1:38:41 PM
An Honest Story and Great Read
Laura L. Smith writes a very truthful picture of a shifted focus that has effected many teenage girls. Her young adult novel centers around Melissa Rollins, a freshman striving to be on the leadership of her dance team. With school and practice and the up and down social life she begins to use food, and the lack of it, to control her world.
There are tons of books out there for and about teens and their struggles with eating disorders and weight related concerns. Skinny stands out from the crowd in that it addresses a disorder that many other books ignore. O.C.D. or obsessive compulsive disorder is often the core root of eating disorders. It’s like focus on steroids. Try as she might she can’t ever seem to escape the agonizing thoughts that always center around the same issue. These overactive thoughts quickly morph into behaviors that become habitual and more dangerous as time progresses. It’s not always a desire to be thin or derived from media images of Hollywood twigs. Sometimes it’s just a control strategy for teens and adults who feel off balance and crave some power over themselves, even if it is counterproductive.
Another thing I love about Skinny is that it doesn’t glamorize the choices Melissa is making in the story. With Anorexia and Bulimia such a buzz topic in teen circles it is easy to collect strategies from these well meaning books. Some teenagers will read these types of books like a manual for how to “do it better”. Lisa L. Smith focuses on the thoughts going on in Melissa’s head and what is driving her to make these dangerous choices, rather than focusing on the action itself and the methods of accomplishing it.
Melissa is a Christian. She loves God very much, but her understanding is clouded. She journals her prayers and reads the Word. She goes to church and she’s on her way to heaven, but this struggle is warring inside of her. Who can’t relate to that battle, right?
I can relate to Melissa. As a christian teenager I was diagnosed with an eating disorder. My behavior back then looked like an eating disorder. It was an easy fit. As I got older I got help for the eating disorder. I put on weight and everyone was happy. Then another compulsion surfaced. The compulsion for cleanliness. The deep focus on my house and the aesthetic beauty of my world began to take over my mind. What I really had was O.C.D. My eating, like with Melissa, was a symptom of my need to control. I had to learn to surrender my need to control over to God. It’s still a work in progress.
I am so thankful that there is a writer like Lisa L. Smith who is brave enough to call it what it is and to even address that it doesn’t “go away” it’s an on going struggle. It’s a struggle worth fighting and it can be helped.
Skinny is a quick read and a worthy book that I would happily recommend to teenagers.
Posted by
Heather Randall
on
5/23/2009 7:19:51 PM
A Glimpse into Obsessive-Compulsive Thoughts and Habits
Melissa has a lot on her plate: dance team (will she make captain?), schoolwork (how'd she get a C in Chemistry?), and a cute new guy (will he ask her to the Sugar Plum Stomp?)
She decides that putting less on her plate -- literally -- will help her achieve her goals. After all, losing a few pounds will help her compete against the other girls on the dance team and help her fit into that perfect new prom dress.
Through Melissa's story, author Laura Smith gives readers a glimpse at the thoughts and habits of a teenage girl developing an eating disorder. Girls who struggle with obsessive-compulsive ideologies will find Melissa's struggles authentic; those who have not will gain understanding and empathy for their friends who do.
As one who spent six weeks in an inpatient Eating Disorder Unit as a teenager, I found myself thinking, "Really?" a couple times while reading Skinny. Melissa's parents seem too good to be true: understanding, supportive, and flexible. This doesn't mesh with my experience; at group counseling sessions in the EDU, parents often demanded, "Why are you doing this to us?" Also, the ease – even relish – with which Melissa gains the doctor-ordered three pounds in one week did not ring true for me. The early stages of re-gaining weight were excruciatingly hard, at least for me and and my fellow EDU inmates. Of course, these are highly subjective reactions; each girl's struggle and story is unique.
Skinny is a great book for pre-teen and teen girls, especially for a "book club" type discussion. I also recommend that mothers of pre-teens and teen girls read Skinny, both to become familiar with the tell-tale signs of an eating disorder and to spend some time in the complex and emotion-ridden world in which our girls live.
Posted by
Cheri Gregory
on
5/16/2009 7:54:00 PM
A Glimpse into Obsessive-Compulsive Thoughts and Habits
Melissa has a lot on her plate: dance team (will she make captain?), schoolwork (how'd she get a C in Chemistry?), and a cute new guy (will he ask her to the Sugar Plum Stomp?)
She decides that putting less on her plate -- literally -- will help her achieve her goals. After all, losing a few pounds will help her compete against the other girls on the dance team and help her fit into that perfect new prom dress.
Through Melissa's story, author Laura Smith gives readers a glimpse at the thoughts and habits of a teenage girl developing an eating disorder. Girls who struggle with obsessive-compulsive ideologies will find Melissa's struggles authentic; those who have not will gain understanding and empathy for their friends who do.
As one who spent six weeks in an inpatient Eating Disorder Unit as a teenager, I found myself thinking, "Really?" a couple times while reading Skinny. Melissa's parents seem too good to be true: understanding, supportive, and flexible. This doesn't mesh with my experience; at group counseling sessions in the EDU, parents often demanded, "Why are you doing this to us?" Also, the ease – even relish – with which Melissa gains the doctor-ordered three pounds in one week did not ring true for me. The early stages of re-gaining weight were excruciatingly hard, at least for me and and my fellow EDU inmates. Of course, these are highly subjective reactions; each girl's struggle and story is unique.
Skinny is a great book for pre-teen and teen girls, especially for a "book club" type discussion. I also recommend that mothers of pre-teens and teen girls read Skinny, both to become familiar with the tell-tale signs of an eating disorder and to spend some time in the complex and emotion-ridden world in which our girls live.
Posted by
Cheri Gregory
on
5/16/2009 7:00:41 PM
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